The Omnivore's Dilemma

I finished reading this book actually quite a while ago but I've been continuing to process it for quite some time. I'm a big fan of the author Michael Pollan. He's written a few books I've read and he's done some interviews and made a couple of videos on how important our relationship with food is.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is the idea that because humans, as omnivores, eat so many types of food, and we have access to transportation and food preservation techniques. It causes the question of, what we are going to eat, into a dilemma.

There are four different chapters traving four different types of food chains. The first; the industrial food chain. Subsidized crops, feed lots and fast food are primarily what this chapter is about, and I know it caused some controversy, but I found it very disturbing. The second is the industrial organic food chain. Although the organic market is much more regulated and there have been studies that show it's more nutritious, there are still some big questions to ask about this method. Mono culture and lots of fossil fuels used for transportation following this food chain makes you question it's sustainability. The third chapter is about a polyface, multispecies meat farm that believes in local farming and producing smaller quanitity for a better quality of life for their animals. The last chapter is a chapter all about hunting and foraging and how to produce all of your own food from the wild. An unrealistic approach for most. The over population of the earth would make it pretty impossible for us to all live from foraging in the wild.

I guess the thing that gets me the most about this book is that it asked big questions caused quite a bit of internal debate. How do I feel about eating meat and why? Where does guilt come from? Do I have a food culture and what is it? Do I appreciate what I have access to? Can I continue to support the fast food industry the way it operates currently? We've talked about mindful eating in the meetings in the past, and having food chains traced back to the beginning really makes you think about where your food comes from and what it has gone through to get to you. It made me shop more mindfully, and eat more mindfully.

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." - Michael Pollan

https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pollan_gives_a_plant_s_eye_view